Senior Correspondent
Coronavirus patients in Tokyo are being turned away from hospitals as medical services struggle to cope with a surge of infections. Public health centers are also under pressure, unable to deal with the volume of cases.
Daily new cases in Tokyo topped 2,000 last week as a state of emergency went into effect for the capital and the neighboring prefectures of Kanagawa, Saitama, and Chiba.
Health Ministry officials say that in the week through January 2, they were unable to secure spaces in hospitals or isolation facilities for more than 3,000 infected people. In just the past month, the number of cases has increased four-fold.